Lake Washington High School (LWHS) is one of approximately 1,500 schools worldwide to implement the AP Capstone™ diploma program―an innovative program that allows students to develop skills that matter most for college success, such as research, collaboration, and communication.

If you live in Lake Washington School District (LWSD) and your child will be five years old on or before August 31, 2018, it is time to register them for Kindergarten. Registration takes place at your neighborhood school.

LWSD holds an open enrollment period once each year for parents who want their children to attend a school other than their neighborhood school. Parents may apply between February 1-28 for a change to the school assignment for the 2018-19 school year for students in grades 1-12.

For the fourth year in a row, the College Board named Lake Washington School District (LWSD) to its Annual AP District Honor Roll. LWSD is one of only 431 public school districts in the nation and one of eight in Washington to be honored.

Technology

Lake Washington School District is a nationally recognized leader in using technology in the classroom and has been for the last two decades. Today’s students have lived with digital technology from a very early age. Technology is a natural part of how they live every day. To engage these “digital natives”, the district provides reliable, contemporary, and integrated technology to enable teaching, learning, research, and service. Teachers must use technology as an integral part of their teaching strategies to stimulate the exchange and creation of knowledge students have come to expect. Technology will exist in an integrated environment that fosters an open, collaborative, and unifying culture.

In this district, the computer center and instructional technology work together in the same department. The advantage is that curriculum needs drive the systems that are in place to support both teachers and students. The computer center supports and maintains the infrastructure, such as the networks and computers. The instructional technology group works with the curriculum content teams to provide a seamless approach to delivering that content, using appropriate technology. They provide teachers the tools and training needed that connect technology with learning.

You can expect to find the following equipment:

A teacher computer

A LCD projector

A digital document camera

Speaker system

A mounted ActivBoard (an interactive whiteboard)

Interactive feedback ActiVote devices

All elementary schools have access to carts of laptops at a ratio of 3:1 (grades K-2) or 2:1 (grades 3-5). All 6-12 students have been assigned a laptop for home and school use.

The instructional technology group provides many resources for teachers to use this equipment effectively. An internal internet site is stocked with maps, flipcharts, and lessons. Teachers can project these materials on the ActivBoard. As the teacher and students work with these materials, working out problems or writing answers, the teacher can save the work to the computer, bringing it back for reference at any time.

The program ensures students learn the information and communication technology skills in the student profile. The program was piloted in 2010 and implemented district-wide in 2012. This program is possible thanks to technology levies passed by voters.

Lake Washington School District strives to ensure academic success for all students by closing opportunity gaps. We do this by providing equitable and inclusive working and learning environments for all students, families, staff and communities. The MAS program is one example of how we provide equitable learning environments for all students.

What do students and families need to know about this program?

Every student in Lake Washington School District middle and high schools will be issued a laptop computer in the fall. Students are responsible for the specific laptop they are issued. They must turn it in at the end of the school year. Before a student is issued a laptop, parents will need to read and sign the agreement form below. If you decline to sign the form, your student will use a laptop at school but will not be allowed to take it home.

A schedule of fines for damaged, lost or stolen equipment is listed here. Because of these potential costs, parents may wish to buy optional insurance. Please refer to the student laptop handbook (Español) for laptop fines and fees.

Families may wish to protect against liability for lost, damaged or stolen property by reviewing their insurance options. Some homeowner’s policy may offer coverage and some may offer this coverage if a rider is acquired.

In addition, Lake Washington School District has arranged for an insurance option for families wishing to purchase a specific additional insurance to cover their student’s laptop. This insurance can be purchased from Worth Insurance Group. The premium is $54.20 per year and covers accidental damage and theft (police report required). The deductible in this policy is $0. This insurance can be acquired directly by accessing http://my.worthavegroup.com/lakewashington. The company also offers coverage for other personal technology systems. If you choose not to purchase the optional insurance or do not otherwise have coverage, you will be responsible for fees for damaged or lost/stolen equipment, as defined in the laptop handbook above on page 6.

Need affordable home Internet service? Access to the Internet has become more and more important to students for learning at home and to families for communicating with the school. Comcast offers Internet Essentials home Internet service to families with students who qualify for free or reduced price lunch and without internet access for 90 days. This program offers home Internet service for $9.95 a month plus tax, with no activation fees, equipment rental fees, or price increases. A low-cost computer ($149.99 plus tax) is available at initial enrollment. For more information visit www.InternetEssentials.com or call 1-855-846-8376.

If you continue to experience issues with your laptop or if it is damaged, take it to the library, complete the Computer Repair form, and turn in the form with your laptop. You will be issued a loaner laptop to use while yours is in repair. You will receive an email when your laptop is repaired and ready for pick-up. Bring the loaner laptop back to the library.

One of the best ways to avoid this issue is to consistently (and constantly) remind students to charge the laptop at home every night. They are expected to bring the laptop to school charged every day. If they fail to do so, they may be able to borrow a spare power cable. Barring that, the student would have to charge their laptop in the school’s laptop location (often the library) and lose out on participation in the classroom laptop activities until the battery is charged.

If a student forgets to bring their laptop to school, the student may miss out on laptop-related instructional activities that day. Please help us help your student bring their laptop to/from school daily! Each school has a very small number of “loaner” devices. Priority for these loaners goes to students who experience equipment issues outside their control. When available, a student who forgot their laptop may be issued a “loaner” device by the school.

The student will bring the broken laptop to school to turn it in. A loaner/spare may be checked out on the spot to minimize loss of instructional time. The student is liable for loss or damage to the spare while it’s in his or her possession. Once the student’s original laptop is repaired, the student will be notified to swap the loaner for the original laptop. If the damage is determined to have been caused by student negligence or abuse, there will be a fine assessed for the repair costs, as stated in the contract.

The loss needs to be reported ASAP to your student’s school. The student can then check out a loaner/spare until we settle the loss issue. It is critical that the student maintain good security for the laptop at all times! Please work with your student to reinforce the importance of taking care of the laptop.

PE and coaching staff will instruct students on the specific procedures this week. A secure location will be made available for students in PE and on athletic teams to keep laptops safe during those programs.

When students’ use district issued laptops, while at school or home, they access the internet through district filtering and security systems. These systems are provided to help ensure students’ online safety as they explore the World Wide Web. They are also designed to meet the federal requirements outlined in the Children’s’ Internet Protection Act (CIPA) which the district must comply with.

LWSD computer filtering relies on security systems from Palo Alto Networks and Microsoft. These state-of-the-art filtering systems are used to block inappropriate or objectionable material and provide online computing environments for students which support their education. However, no filtering system is 100% reliable. It is reported that over 33,000 web sites are created each day and new sites with objectionable material for students can be missed or may have not yet been picked up for filtering. Students are responsible to help ensure their online safety and should report any inappropriate sites. The district’s Acceptable Use Policy and Acceptable Use Procedure prohibits the use of proxy bypass or other tools that can circumvent the district’s filtering systems.

General categories of sites which are blocked by district firewalls include: Alcohol, tobacco and abused drugs; nudity and adult content; dating; social networking; games, shareware and freeware; streaming media and music purchase and download; web hosting and web based email, online storage and backup; hacking, malware, and phishing; internet portals, personal sites and blogs, private IP addresses; proxy bypass/avoidance and dynamic DNS; and translations sites which can circumvent filtering systems; as well as other identified objectionable content.

District technology staff can block additional sites identified as containing inappropriate content. If sites within blocked categories are needed for specific instructional purposes, teachers can request those sites by opened for access.

Students computing offsite on district-issued computers are tunneled back through district firewalls so that they cannot bypass safe student filtering while connected to private networks using Microsoft Direct Access.

As an added measure, at home, parents can add filtering to their home network. One option is using a free filtering service like the one from www.OpenDNS.com that will filter nefarious content from your home network on all devices, including the LWSD MAS device. If your student has accessed a website that causes you concern and that you feel is inappropriate, please forward the URL to webfilter@lwsd.org.

Get the user name and password from your student. While we prohibit sharing passwords with unauthorized users, parents are explicitly authorized users. We encourage you to know what your student is doing on his or her school laptop.

No, we don’t require families to have Internet access, though it would be very helpful for students. You should know, however, about the Comcast Internet Essentials program, which provides basic Internet access to families with students who qualify for free or reduced price lunch. This program offers home Internet service for $9.95 a month plus tax, with no activation fees, equipment rental fees or price increases. For more information visit InternetEssentials.com or call 1-855-846-8376.

There are several reasons why we are providing the same computing devices to all students in school. They include safety, instruction, technical support and equity.

Safety: we have installed web filters and have other safety precautions that help prevent students from accessing inappropriate or unsafe websites while at school or home. We can’t be sure that devices brought from home meet the same standard.

Instruction: we have purchased and installed several different software packages on district laptops that will not be available on outside computers. The same software, and even the same version, will be on each district laptop, so teachers are able to quickly and more efficiently teach entire classes and help individual students. Trying to teach a lesson with several different kinds of software and/or different versions of that software would be very difficult.

Technical Support: we can provide robust technical support through our technical support staff to a limited universe of computing devices. We can’t offer the same level of support to an unlimited universe of devices, which could lead to more computer downtime and lost learning opportunities. This practice is similar to the private sector, where employees are issued a company-owned device to ensure a predictable user experience and optimal technical support.

Equity: some families cannot afford the latest computer or even a computer at all. If all students are using the same device, they can focus on what they are learning with the device, not on who has which device and what else is on it.

Students are not precluded from bringing their personal mobile devices / computers to school, however, students who bring personal computers:

Must also bring their district computer fully charged and available for use

Must use the district device when required by the teacher

May access the Internet only through guest wireless network, where filters are set to the level of protection needed by an elementary student.

Will not receive technical support or assistance with personal computers

May not access printing or charge their personal computer at school

Do so at their own risk. The district is not responsible for lost or stolen personal computers.

If no parent or guardian signs the agreement, a student will still get access to a computer when he or she is at school. If the student intentionally damages the computer, families still may be liable for the damage, the same as with any piece of school-owned equipment.

Students can install drivers and print to home printers. To install a printer at home, follow these steps:

If your printer is a USB printer it may work just plug and play – try it

From the start button and selecting ‘Devices and Printers’

Click ‘Add Printer’ then ‘Add Local Printer’

Choose the correct port for your printer type (contact the manufacturer if you do not know) it is usually USB

Select the driver from the list – if it is not present you will have to download the driver – (see below)

Give the printer a name and select next

Do not share the printer and select next

Select ‘Set as Default’ printer if you want all jobs to print to this printer automatically and click ‘Finish.’

If the printer driver is not in the driver list you will have to download the driver:

Visit the web site of the manufacturer of your printer and download the driver. You must only download the ‘driver only’ version of the software as the device will not allow you to install print management software

Please note the location/folder you save the driver in

At step 5 above select ‘Have Disk’ and browse to the folder where you saved the driver and select the *.inf file – click next and continue with the steps above

Please note that wireless and network printers require additional steps and possibly software that are beyond the scope of this document and may require manufacturer tech support. Also please note that students are not allowed to install software other than drivers on their computer so printers requiring print management software may not be compatible with the device.

Students are blocked from installing software for security reasons, which will also block the use of print management software. Check with the manufacturer to see if they offer a driver only solution.

For security reasons, the District does not give students or parents Administrator rights to the devices. We set the MAS devices to work with the common security provided by most wireless networks encountered at businesses, libraries, or hotels.

If your home wireless security is more complex, we can offer the following recommendations:

Add a segment to your network with less security for use by the MAS device

Hardwire the MAS device directly to the home network and bypass wireless

Open a hotspot for use by the MAS device separate from your secure wireless network

We are bound by the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) to filter Internet content to any devices accessed by students on the LWSD network, including the MAS devices. Some students dislike the filters. Given the opportunity, students could install security-defeating software to bypass this requirement. Some students also would also be tempted to use the devices for illegal file sharing. All of those actions violate the district’s Acceptable Use Policy.

The Lake Washington School District does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, gender, marital status, creed, religion, honorably discharged veteran, military status, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, the presence of any sensory, mental or physical disability, or the use of a trained guide dog or service animal by a person with a disability, in its programs and activities and provides equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. Complete policy statement